June 2015 Moms

Transitioning away from the bottle and breastmik

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Re: Transitioning away from the bottle and breastmik

  • beemaya83 said:
    I don't know what to do. My lo has been wanting bottle at least 3x a night for a few weeks now. He eats very little solids during the day. I'll be bringing this up to the pediatrician for his 1st year appointment. I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Seems like most of the mommies LO's are eating way more than mine. 
    My son nurses 2-3 times a night, still. His pediatrician says he isn't hungry and should be sleeping, but that's just not true. He is hungry. I am not one to question medical professionals, but I'm not going to make my kid go hungry just because the average kid can sleep at this point.

    I doubt you're doing anything at all wrong!! All babies are different, and if they're hungry, they're hungry. 

    Do do talk to your doc, but don't let your instincts be pushed aside. You know your baby best.
    I agree. My LO sleeps through the night some nights, other nights still up to nurse once or twice. I just go with it. It's hard if they are picky eaters with solids. Mine kind of is too. If yours isn't eating much during the day, makes sense  he's up at night. Maybe the pediatrician will  have some ideas on how to get LO to eat more during the day. 
  • @virginiaunicorn11 and @ciennah99 so yesterday appointment the pediatrician once again said the lo is not hungry and that kids his age can go through the night without feeding. Pretty much advised to cut him out cold turkey. She feels he may not be eating enough solids because he is full all the time from just drinking formula (he drinks 4oz every 2-3 hours during the day). She emphasized that what I'm doing is hurting his development and he needs to start learning how to fall asleep on his own without a bottle. She also advised to start on cows milk. 16oz total per day and I can break it up however I want. More solids was key advise. She did say that bottle feeding at night can also cause tooth decay. 
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  • beemaya83 said:
    @virginiaunicorn11 and @ciennah99 so yesterday appointment the pediatrician once again said the lo is not hungry and that kids his age can go through the night without feeding. Pretty much advised to cut him out cold turkey. She feels he may not be eating enough solids because he is full all the time from just drinking formula (he drinks 4oz every 2-3 hours during the day). She emphasized that what I'm doing is hurting his development and he needs to start learning how to fall asleep on his own without a bottle. She also advised to start on cows milk. 16oz total per day and I can break it up however I want. More solids was key advise. She did say that bottle feeding at night can also cause tooth decay. 
    That's helpful, thanks! My boy eats solids very well and constantly throughout the day. He also can fall asleep on his own - doesn't nurse to sleep. I was away for two nights last week and my mom watched him. She said the first night he woke and cried for an hour til she took him downstairs and he scarfed a bunch of Cream of Wheat and Cheerios and peanut butter. She said he hugged her repeatedly and patted her leg, acting very "grateful" for feeding him. The second night when he woke, she remembered to give him the pumped milk that I'd left. He had that, then went right back to sleep.

    I'm not trying to be argumentative, and I'm sure these are valid points from the pediatrician. I just can't ignore my kid's cues that he's actually hungry at night. His number of wake ups has already dropped naturally (still two a night usually, but sometimes one), so I'm just gonna go with it 
  • janat1717janat1717 member
    edited July 2016
    beemaya83 said:
    @virginiaunicorn11 and @ciennah99 so yesterday appointment the pediatrician once again said the lo is not hungry and that kids his age can go through the night without feeding. Pretty much advised to cut him out cold turkey. She feels he may not be eating enough solids because he is full all the time from just drinking formula (he drinks 4oz every 2-3 hours during the day). She emphasized that what I'm doing is hurting his development and he needs to start learning how to fall asleep on his own without a bottle. She also advised to start on cows milk. 16oz total per day and I can break it up however I want. More solids was key advise. She did say that bottle feeding at night can also cause tooth decay. 
    I know a few pedis that insist it does not hurt development at all and that it is beneficial in other ways. They don't know everything of course so you just have to do what works for your family.


    Edited to add that maybe the formula angle has more to do with it too. Not sure.
  • My LO still nurses at night. I don't think it's hurting his development. He hates cows milk so we're going to take it very slow. However at my Peds appointment tomorrow for his 1 year appt I will tell him he's sleeping throughout the night without an issue ;) Bc I'm tired of him getting on to me every single visit about having me do CIO. 
  • my LO can't tolerate cow's milk, (vomits after drinking it)  and hates almond milk.  Up until this week he has been nursing at night (2-3 times).  We have had some success with CIO.  He still stirs sometimes at night, sometimes even cries, but is usually pretty successful at getting him self settled.  I don't let him cry for more than 10 min.  If I can sense he's not going to settle, I will go in and nurse him.  Still pumping at work 2x a day, and then i nurse him before bed and in the morning during the work week, and then on demand on the weekends.  
  • @swiebe What a bummer. My LO vomited EVERY time she had a bottle and it was
    definitely worse whenever she had anything dairy. She grew out of it, if that's even a thing. She chugs whole milk as soon as I put her cup in front of her now. 

    We've been off bottles for a couple of weeks now! Yay! I finally packed all the bottles away today. Bittersweet moment. 
  • @alcrimmins at what age did you attempt milk again?  I have also heard that they do grow out of it, or some kids do anyway.  

  • I attempted again two weeks before her birthday. I mixed 25% milk 75% formula and weaned off the formula. She was officially off formula a week after her birthday. Hope this helps! @swiebe
  • So at my 1 year appointment my Dr said the same thing---that nursing too much will squash his appetite and he just needs to nurse for comfort. However, why does the WHO say to nurse until 2? I am not ready to wean and neither is LO. His growth is fine so I'm not worried. I'm pumping once at work Bc I'm gone 11-12 hours and that's too long for me on days I work. 
  • From what I understand, breast milk and/or formula is the main source of nutrition during their first year, then after that, if you continue breast feeding, it becomes more secondary over time but still beneficial (no idea about formula after they turn one).  So originally when introducing solids I made sure to offer that food about an hour after she nursed or had a bottle.  Now since she turned one I've made a point to offer solids first then offer whole milk and/or water afterward (at this point in a straw cup).  And I still breast feed her, but it's about four times a day/night and I figure over the next few/several months we'll lessen that (either from her or me being ready to be done).  But making sure to nurse after she eats (and making sure to wait at least a few hours after she last ate/nursed before offering solids) has helped encourage my LO to eat more solids.

    For those that mentioned they don't feel comfortable letting their LO cry at night because they might be (or are) hungry, I totally understand.  I wouldn't want to either.  I'd try to work on getting to a point where they are less likely to rely on that time at night to eat (try encouraging eating more during the day).  I mean, at some point our LOs are going to get through an entire night without needing to eat right?  It's not like we're all going to the kitchen to make a meal in the middle of the night all the time.  ;)  Just a work in progress I figure.

    I mentioned this in another thread, but my LO does wake up once at night.  I'll nurse her and she goes right back to sleep (luckily).  She goes to bed at around 7pm, then typically wakes up between 4-5am where I'll nurse her and she goes back to sleep without an issue until about 7am.  At her one year appointment the doctor was fine with that since it wasn't like she was waking every few hours throughout the night or very early in the night.  He thought it seemed reasonable that she wakes up once 8-9 hours later, but did say if we wanted to, we can try to eliminate that feeding.  If we did try to sleep train to eliminate that one wake up / feeding, I don't think I'll want to push it much since I feel it'll likely just end up with her crying until it's time to wake up for the day anyway or I'll just have to live with the fact that my LO has a super early wake up time.  :o  So for now at the very least this seems to buy me a couple/few more hours of sleep.
  • We just went away for the weekend and I decided to not bring any bottles. Since he knows where they are at home he will go over and point to them to ask. I figured if he did not know where they were while away he couldn't point to them and just used a variety of sippy cups. He did great!!!  Did not drink as much milk but never freaked out for a bottle.  And now that we are home (I hid them the minute we walked in the house) he has not asked at all.  Whew!!!
  • Wow ladies! I'm waking up still 3-4 times a night, but the kid cries so loud I give in and give him a bottle. I have cut each time to 2oz only. He eats very little solids during the day and trust me I try and try but he spits most of it out. He lost a bit of weight so I have an appointment today to have him checked out. 
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  • I officially stopped pumping last week. I have 3 ounces of breast milk in the fridge and 16 in the freezer. I am a little bit nervous about this. LO eats OK but still not too into cow's milk or healthy foods like vegetables. I'm nervous about her not having the breast milk while I'm away but I am still nursing her when I am home and she chooses. All these transitions are hard for me. I'm sure she'll be fine though!
  • @ciennah99 please keep us posted on how it goes.  Your situation sounds so similar to mine.  I am still pumping at work 2x a day, and sending 4 oz of milk with LO for a bottle a day while he is with my sister while I'm at work.  I am ready to be done pumping, but LO can't do cow's milk, and is not a fan at all of almond milk.  He eats other solids great. 
  • Mine won't drink almond milk really, a few sips maybe.. She's allergic to milk so we've only tried almond and coconut. I'm down to nursing when she wakes in the am and before bed. Sometimes I have pumped milk that she'll drink from her cup but if I don't have any she's fine not having milk. Im not worried about it right now. Once I'm done nursing I think I'll make sure she drinks some kinds of milk at least once a day (planning By September )
  • @caitlincunn thanks for posting!  so we are in a similar situation too.  We haven't been officially tested for a milk allergy, but signs are pointing to yes.  It's reassuring to know people are going through the same thing, helps me not stress about his intake.  
  • I stopped pumping about a month ago, but still nurse DD twice a day...around 5-5:30pm (which is when we get home during the week) and then at bedtime.  One side each time (she has only ever taken one boob per feeding).  it's working well.  I was worried that I'd stop producing enough for her, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  She did get cranky like I was running out the first 2-3 days of my period last week, but it appears that was temporary.  She eats solids like nobody's business and gets between 8-12oz cow's milk a day as well.  Right now I just offer both nursings every day, but if I wind up pregnant again before she weans herself I may try to force her off of them.  I actually think the bedtime feed will be easier to cut; she seems VERY attached to the "home from school" feed during the week for some reason.
  • I stopped pumping shortly after LO turned one.  That's also when I stopped sending her to daycare with breast milk.  I was unsure of the transition as well, but I figured, at that point she could have whole milk instead of breast milk (or formula) and technically they don't have to drink milk (from what I've read and confirmed with our pediatrician, it's mostly a convenient way to get calcium, protein, etc.).  Keeping that in mind helped me take that leap of faith that it would all work out one way or another.  Originally she wasn't drinking much whole milk at all from her straw cups, but over time she's started drinking more.
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